Written by orange• November 20, 2024• 12:39 am• Costa Mesa, Costa Mesa Playhouse, Review, Theater, Uncategorized

Killer Joe @ Costa Mesa Playhouse – Review

Photo credit: Kerrin Piché Serna, David Rodriguez

Written by Patrick Chavis

Killer Joe at the Costa Mesa Playhouse Nov 1 – 24, 2024.

Tracey Lett’s southern fried thriller, directed by Chris Mertan, may not be the classiest piece of theater on the stage, but it is the oyster piece of chicken in the basket that makes you want to dig in the bucket for more.

Story:

Killer Joe is set in 1999. It’s about a poor, dysfunctional, European-American family on the outskirts of Dallas, Texas. In debt with a drug dealer, Chris Smith (Justin Callisch) devises a plan to pay off his debts and put some money in the pockets of his family members. He hires a hitman named Killer Joe Cooper (Mark Tillman) to kill Ansel Smith’s (Peter Hilton) ex-wife to collect the $50,000 in insurance money. What could go wrong in this tight and violent familial drama?

With a name like Killer Joe, don’t be surprised that the show features dark and violent themes, and multiple sexually charged scenes. This is definitely a show for adults. Mertan doesn’t stray from showing the more controversial scenes in the play. The strategic blocking used in some of the scenes, picking and choosing what to display to the audience and what not to show, kept the viewers guessing whether or not they’ve seen the play or the film. The fight choreography these actors perform, especially in the second half from David Rodriguez, flows naturally, organized chaos at its best.

Set/Lighting Design:

Michael Serna’s set design features an old, flickering television, dirty floors covered in trash and crumbs, VHS tapes set under the TV, which speaks to the time period, and a blue moonlight-colored light protrudes through the windows. The space is lifted up from the stage to define it even more. Right of the stage, the realistic-looking kitchen design is intact with cheap-looking wallpaper from the 1970s.

An immensely detailed trailer park design from Serna is made even more impressive because of the moody and precise lighting from Sofia Duran-Kniep. Using these gorgeous colored lights in certain parts of the set to communicate the time of day and mood, look no further than the changes made even when you look outside the door of the house in various scenes. Kniep’s designs bring out so much character in the space without being distracting. It’s some of the best lighting to come out of Orange County this year.

2024 OCR Best Feature Actor Mark Tillman as Killer Joe Cooper gives a patient but intense performance. Catlin Zinn captures the foul-mouthed and uncouth Sharla. At the same time, she was fully committed in some of the more difficult scenes in this play. It was hard to watch, but you couldn’t look away.